The Deserving: What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal About American Justice by Elizabeth Vartkessian

The Deserving: What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal About American Justice by Elizabeth Vartkessian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Elizabeth Vartkessian is the founder and director of nonprofit mitigation team called Advancing Real Change Inc. Simply put, their mission is to humanize a very inhumane institution, the American prison and legal system. Mitigation is not about proving an incarcerated person's innocence, rather it is about seeing beyond the terrible facts of their crimes, to their whole life and what led them to where they are today. This work is primarily done with men on death row, whose lives often include childhood abuse, both sexual and physical. They are people who may never have known a safe childhood, adequate food, parental love or a decent education. There may be drug addiction and/or mental illness.
The book is about seeing people as persons with a whole life story. By humanizing them, it also humanizes us. It made me think every time I sat down with it, and challenged my unexamined beliefs. I could see myself coming back to this book again in the future. It's a lot to take in at one time.

View all my reviews

Eat A Peach by David Chang

Eat a Peach by David Chang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow, I'm not even sure how to describe this book and my feelings about it. I went into it without knowing much about the author, except that he was a celebrity chef. Much of the book was about his struggles, with mental health- depression, bipolar, thoughts of suicide, as well as his struggles to create food that people would want to eat. By his own admission, he was an a$$hole for many years, fed by his mental health issues and his desire to get ahead. Meeting his wife when he was almost 30 was a big turning point for him, as well as having a child, and the #MeToo movement.
This passage really resonated with me.

This all raises the question of whether depression is something you can control by simply sucking it up. My answer is no, I don't think you can overcome it with willpower, but I do believe that dealing with depression is a choice that needs to be made. You have to choose to stand up every day and keep going.

.

View all my reviews